Today in History - Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Today is Tuesday, March 1, the 60th day of 2011. There are 305 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps.

On this date:

In 1790, President George Washington signed a measure authorizing the first U.S. Census.

In 1809, the Illinois Territory came into existence.

In 1811, in what became known as the Massacre of the Citadel, hundreds of warriors known as Mamluks were slain in Cairo by forces loyal to Ottoman governor Muhammad Ali.

In 1867, Nebraska became the 37th state.

In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed an act creating Yellowstone National Park.

In 1931, Memphis, Tenn., held its first Cotton Carnival.

In 1932, Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, N.J. (Remains identified as those of the child were found the following May.)

In 1954, Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen.

In 1971, a bomb went off inside a men's room at the U.S. Capitol; the radical group Weather Underground claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn blast.

In 1981, Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands began a hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland; he died 65 days later.

Ten years ago: Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, defying international protests, began destroying all statues in the country. Seven foreign oil workers (a Chilean, an Argentine, a New Zealander and four Americans) who'd been kidnapped the previous October in Ecuador's jungle were freed after a ransom was reportedly paid.

Five years ago: President George W. Bush, en route to India and Pakistan, made a surprise visit to Afghanistan to show U.S. support for the country's fledgling democracy. Actor Jack Wild, who'd played the Artful Dodger in the 1968 movie musical "Oliver!," died in Bedfordshire, England, at age 53.

One year ago: Wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic (RA'-doh-van KA'-ra-jich), defending himself against charges of Europe's worst genocide since the Holocaust, told judges in his slow-moving trial that he was not the barbarian depicted by U.N. prosecutors, but was protecting his people against a fundamentalist Muslim plot. Jay Leno returned as host of NBC's "The Tonight Show."